Dmitry Sklyarov protest

Editors' note: An earlier version of this photo caption misidentified the past legal case and the person pictured. The case concerned DVD anticopying technology and Jon Lech Johansen (pictured).

Digg's run-in on Wednesday with the owner of an HD DVD digital rights management key isn't the first time the technology industry has seen a legal scuffle arise from demonstrating how to utilize software flaws or get around protections.

Computer code released in 1999 that bypassed DVD anti-copying technology was the subject of many legal battles. The one known author, Jon Lech Johansen, became famous as DVD Jon and was put on trial in a Norwegian court, where he was acquitted.

In the U.S., the Motion Picture Association of America sued to outlaw the code and went after people who published it online. A federal judge banned hacker publication 2600.com from publishing or linking to the code. Protesters published portions of the code, called DeCSS, on T-shirts and recorded dramatic readings and songs with the code.